After 40 years, a grand finale for St. Rocco's

Friday

Aug 10, 2018 at 4:40 PM

After 40 years, Franklin's popular Feast of St. Rocco -- a celebration of Italian heritage and food -- is coming to an end this weekend, Aug. 9-12.

FRANKLIN -- In the office tucked into a corner of the barn on the grounds of the old St. Mary's School convent -- headquarters for Franklin's Feast of St. Rocco for the past 40 years -- it seems like nothing has changed.

Portraits of six popes preside over all that occurs there. There is a faded cover of a St. Rocco's program from 2006 on the fridge, along with an old black and white photo of St. Rocco's volunteers prepping food back in the early years, and a cutout of a gondoliere guiding his gondola along a mint-green wall. An old, browning photo of St. Mary's Church hangs over the desk.

There is the usual coming and going -- volunteers looking for a roll of yellow barrier tape, a screwdriver, some bottles of water.

And there is the usual teasing among the Feast's co-chairmen: Peter Brunelli, Mickey DeGrazia, Tom Olsen and Frank Fiorillo.

"Ok, who did this?" demands DeGrazia, feigning an indignant attitude as he points out a sign someone has taped on the wall: "Mickey's job: Plumbing & Gas. 'I guess that's it.'"

His eyes, alight with humor, fall on his cousin, Brunelli. "It was you! You did it."

"Not me!" says a chuckling Brunelli holding his hands up in a surrendering gesture.

But everyone knows the truth. If there's a ringleader among this bunch of pranksters, it's certainly Brunelli.

It's been this way for decades. It feels the same as it always has the days before the Feast of St. Rocco gets under way.

But it's not quite the same. Underneath the subtle -- and not so subtle -- jabbing, the inside jokes, and the fun-loving banter and laughter, there is a somber note to the mood.

The thought that, after 40 years, this Feast of St. Rocco will be the last one is not far from anyone's minds. It's the finale, the standing ovation, the zabaglione and tiramisu at the end of a robust Italian meal, they say -- they're going out while the getting out is still good. Every good thing must come to an end, they agree.

Still, it's not easy as they get ready for this year's farewell festivities, Aug. 9-12.

"It came quick, and it feels different," conceded DeGrazia. "It's the last one."

Like his fellow chairmen, he has been involved in planning and setting up this annual celebration of Italian-American heritage and food for many years - an event that has drawn thousands to the town each August to enjoy food, music, and carnival rides and games. They have all seen their families grow up, reeling from summer to summer, from St. Rocco's to St. Rocco's. They have all grown older.

With lifestyles having become so much busier -- and, says Brunelli, so many of the younger generation of Italian Americans seeking their success away from their hometown -- there is no one with the time to take over and keep the Feast going.

"What we did," said DeGrazia on Tuesday, leaning into an old green leather chair in the office, adjusting his Patriots cap on his head, "it's been a great thing."

He's ready for a rest, yes, as are his fellow chairmen. "But the feeling is awful for me," he admitted. "It's tough."

The sentiment is a shared one.

"St. Rocco's ... it's something that's within you," confided Brunelli, pressing a hand to his chest, giving his signature jovial joking a brief rest. "So this is like, a part of you is gone."

It's difficult, but Fiorelli is a bit more practical about it. "I'm going to miss this group, but I'm not gonna miss the work," he said. "We're all getting older and our bodies are falling apart."

There will always be the memories, offered Olsen, and knowing that, together, they helped create something that has brought the community together and given many people their own special memories.

"We've had a lot of fun," he said. "But now, everybody's in a rush. That's the lifestyles of so many people now."

Brunelli said even as the final St. Rocco's arrives, the ones that have come before keep coming into focus. The nostalgia is to be expected.

"This all just makes me think of the 40 years. I remember the first one, the first Mass, when everybody came out of church and followed the statue (of St. Rocco) they carried all around the common," he said.

The Feast was conceived by Father Michael Guarino, who was looking "to create a religious, social and cultural event in Franklin that followed the format of traditional Italian festivals," according to the St. Mary's website.

On a visit to the grounds of the St. Mary School convent -- kitty corner from the church that overlooks one end of the town common -- the father found a statue of St. Rocco, the patron saint of healing, and he was inspired. The first Feast, with its festivities and its three Masses -- one a healing Mass held outdoors at the fairgrounds -- took place in 1978.

Brunelli and DeGrazia started out as the St. Rocco's "Calzone Kings." They made calzones from scratch in those days, creating the dough, stuffing it, sealing in the goodness, baking it. Others contributed their own specialties, from pasta and "gravy" to Phyllis Vozzella's famous Italian tomato salad, to the DeBaggis familiy's sought-after cannolis and pastry lobster tails.

The co-chairmen aren't the only ones reminiscing this week as the final Feast arrives.

"As a kid, I thought it was so cool that Auggie DeBaggis and his sister and cousins got to stuff cannolis in the pastry booth, sometimes standing on milk crates until they were tall enough," said 25-year volunteer Jennie Coughlin, who now works the Stuffies and Sides booth with her parents, Paula and Alan, and two other families. "The past few years, itís been their kids learning how to stuff cannolis the same way Vinnie DeBaggis, Auggieís grandfather, taught them when they were young."

Lisa Oxford, a DeBaggis and a member of the St. Rocco's 40th Anniversary Committee, said running the pastry booth just made sense for her parents, Vinnie and Alma. The family owned and operated a local bakery for 60 years. Family members have run the pastry booth since the beginning, and this final year will be no exception.

"The Feast of St. Rocco has not only been a Franklin/St. Mary Parish tradition, it has also been a DeBaggis family tradition. Our children grew up coming to the festival and eventually volunteering, and they have continued the tradition with their families, with a 4th generation of the DeBaggis family now volunteering at the booth," Oxford said. "We have made many wonderful memories that we will always cherish."

For her, this finale year is bittersweet.

"Chairing a booth requires a commitment to work the entire weekend, and it is often hot and humid - and rainy! Yet it is a tradition that has become ingrained in us as a family, thanks to our parents, who taught us to value family, tradition and community," she said. "I know that all good things must, and do, come to an end, and I believe that the timing is appropriate for the festival, as we know it, to come to a close, yet on some level there is a sadness about it."

Coughlin, who for many years has taken the week off work and returned home to help out at the feast, said Saturday mornings before the festival opens are among her favorite times "because the healing Mass is going on as weíre all getting the booths going. Itís a little moment of peace in an otherwise hectic weekend, and a reminder of the origins of St. Rocco and the St. Rocco statue."

Oxford and others say they'll miss the togetherness of volunteers and visitors.

"I'll miss seeing the many people that come by the booth to reminisce and visit, some of whom I only see this one time each year," Oxford said. "I know that this time next summer I may have the feeling that something is 'missing,' but I look forward to new traditions in the future. As my dad used to say, 'Sempre Avanti - always forward.'"

Paula Coughlin, who works in the parish office and has been involved in St. Rocco's for 35 years, will also miss the gathering of the community.

"I guess my most cherished memories are of all the people that I have met whom I would never have gotten to know without my involvement in St. Rocco," she said.

Jennie Coughlin feels the same. She has "so many memories," she said, that she could tell stories all day. And the one thing they all have in common is the people.

"Franklin and St. Maryís have grown a lot over the years, and the parish is so large, itís easy to go months without seeing people because they attend different Masses, or are active in different ministries," she said. "But for this one weekend every year, everybody is working together on this festival, either volunteering or coming to the field to enjoy the food, music and rides."

The weekend, she said "takes on a certain rhythm, the people and the way things happen, and so in some ways itís a checkpoint of all the changes that have happened in the past year. For example, every year Iíd be at the outside sink washing out our sauce and corn pots Sunday night and Mr. Prindeville would be doing the same with the manicotti pots. The first St. Rocco after he died, it wasnít until Sunday night that it really hit me he was gone because he wasnít there washing out the pots."

The chairmen agree, but they are hopeful there will be new traditions. And really, when it comes down to it, said Brunelli, "it was fun. Time flies when you're having fun. And that's what's important."

†

Click HERE for a schedule of the weekend's events.

†

Here are some links to past articles about St. Rocco's and what it has meant to the community.